Looker Meets Rocker! You Read It Here First

September 20, 1985

Her name is Connie. She has nothing to do with the music, but she is very important to the business of rock `n` roll. Connie is a publicist paid to get her clients into the news and to keep them there. Connie is responsible for celebrity gossip, the stupid, who-cares kind that makes great grocery store tabloid headlines.

Connie works for a couple of Englishmen known as Wham! A couple of weeks ago she was at the Miami Baseball Stadium going to bat for her boys. Dressed in a clinging, silky dress and high heels, lipstick and hair oh-so-right, Connie played sentry in the press box, making sure photographers didn`t photograph more than the first 90 seconds of the Wham! concert. (I guess the boys` hair gets mussed after that.) She also was trying to persuade journalists to write any kind of article that mentioned Wham! in any wonderful way, shape or form, even though the press wasn`t allowed near the duo. (Look, Connie, it`s working!)

She dragged a United Press International photographer down the hall to photograph a pair of strikingly attractive Fort Lauderdale women who appear in Wham!`s Careless Whisper video. The video had been shot in Miami months ago and the women, both models, had been selected from a casting call.

Connie corraled a St. Petersburg Times reporter and me and suggested that these women would make a great story. We took their names; we smiled. We returned to our seats to try to do our job of reviewing the concert.

A minute later, Connie yanked me from my perch. I was about to become a leakee. Connie, the leaker, was going to give me big, big news.

``Brooke (Shields) may fly in from Europe to see George (Michael) in Philadelphia,`` Connie said, in a sultry European accent.

``Oh, really,`` I said, in a sultry New Jersey accent. (Gee, Nothing gets between me and my Calvins meets Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.)

``Brooke may be in their next video if her schedule permits,`` Connie said.

``That`s interesting,`` I said.

``You know, George just thinks the world of Brooke,`` Connie said.

``Oh,`` I said.

``They had a five-hour lunch in Chicago after George found out Brooke had a crush on him. He kept everybody waiting outside the restaurant while they talked,`` Connie said.

``Really,`` I said.

Connie gave me a Hollywood peck on the cheek, her full red lips just brushing my skin, and unleashed me to tell the world the big news.

I returned to my seat with high blood pressure, wondering whom I should call first with my Big Scoop: People ? National Enquirer ? Weekly World News ? Field & Stream ?

No way. I owed it to my paper to break the tale of the greatest liaison between modeling and rock `n` roll since Christie and Billy. This would make my career. I salivated. I lost sleep.

But now the Big Scoop is yours, too! Brooke and George! George and Brooke! Couldn`t you just die? Thank you, Connie. Thanks for not telling Entertainment Tonight or MTV first.

Television stations WPTV-Ch. 5 and WBFS-Ch. 33 are broadcasting three hours of the event, from 8 to 11 p.m. The Nashville Network on cable TV is broadcasting the entire concert beginning at 1 p.m.

Those wishing to make a donation can call (800) FARM-AID. If you`d like to contribute other than financially, you can follow the suggestion Neil Young made Sunday during his concert at the Knight Center and urge your congressman to vote for the Harkin Farm Reform Bill, designed to keep small farmers from vanishing like the dinosaurs.

The Robin Trower concert scheduled for the Button South in Hallandale for Oct. 17 has been moved up to Oct. 9. Tickets purchased for Oct. 17 will be honored.

The Gregg Allman Band is scheduled to play Summers on the Beach, Fort Lauderdale, on Oct. 18. Tickets are $9 in advance, $10 at the door.

The Starship and Night Ranger are scheduled to play the West Palm Beach Auditorium Oct. 19 and the Knight Center in Miami on Oct. 20.

Tickets for the Grateful Dead`s Oct. 25 concert at the Hollywood Sportatorium will go on sale Sept. 28 instead of Saturday, as originally announced.

Area band American Excess performs at 10 p.m. Sunday at Monty`s of Kendall, 10625 SW 88th St., Miami.

South Florida band the Groove Thangs, featuring Bonefish Johnny and Down Pat, bring their special musical blend of raw and sweet ``sugarcane soul`` to the Musicians Exchange Cafe in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday for shows at 9 amd 11 p.m. Admission is $1 for members, $3 for non-members. If you`re into James Brown, Wayne Cochran, Bob Marley or any combination thereof, check out the Groove Thangs.